To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will take steps to minimise the movement between licensed nuclear sites of conditioned radioactive waste. (98870)

There are various factors (such as social impacts, technical issues, protection of the environment, land use, transport, availability of radioactive waste treatment and disposal facilities and economic factors) that may need to be considered in any future decision about moving conditioned radioactive wastes between licensed nuclear sites. The desire to avoid excessive transportation of materials is an important consideration but must be balanced with all other relevant factors on a case-by-case basis.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what investigations into the suitability of the soil strata for low or high-level nuclear waste have been made in West Yorkshire. (99421)

I am not aware of any specific investigations of the suitability of soil strata or underlying rocks in West Yorkshire for land-based radioactive waste disposal facilities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what process he plans to adopt to assess the likely cost of (a) interim storage and (b) long-term disposal of intermediate and high level radioactive waste. (98195)

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s (NDA) site licensee companies already have costed plans for the interim storage of waste included in their site lifetime plans. Several stores are already in operation.

We accept the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management’s (CoRWM) recommendation that the process for developing a geological disposal option should be undertaken on a staged basis, with clear decision points. That will allow the Government to review progress and to assess costs, value for money and environmental impact before decisions are taken to move to the next stage.

Final disposal costs will depend on the site and the concept agreed. This is a major investment which will be incurred over a period of many years to ensure long-term public and environmental safety.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he plans to increase resources available to the Environment Agency to use for work on radioactive waste regulation. (98198)

The Environment Agency (EA) recovers the costs of its statutory regulatory activities directly from nuclear site licensees and from non-nuclear users of radioactive materials, through statutory charging schemes. Through the Health and Safety Executive, from nuclear site licensees, and currently through an agreement with Nirex, the EA has other cost recovery routes for its assessment work relating to nuclear waste conditioning and eventual disposal.

The EA and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) are jointly considering how the NDA may fund an increasing level of work that the agency plans to undertake during the coming years, in accordance with the Government’s Managing Radioactive Waste Safely implementation programme.

These funding routes, together with the continued provision of grant in aid, should provide the EA with the necessary resources for effective radioactive waste regulation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will assess the merits of making funding available to support the expenses of public and stakeholder engagement on the detail of implementation of geological disposal of radioactive waste. (98201)

In developing the implementation framework for the geological disposal of higher-activity radioactive waste, the Government will consider the provision of any engagement and community packages as proposed by the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM). The implementation framework will be subject to public consultation next year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether radioactive waste from private nuclear operators including British Energy will become part of the proposed inventory of nuclear waste to be placed in the geological repository. (98204)

The Government have accepted the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management's (CoRWM) recommendation for geological disposal as the best technical option for the long-term management of the United Kingdom's higher-activity radioactive waste. The inventory of materials for disposal in any given facility will need to be clearly defined before agreements with potential host communities can be finalised and before technical options are developed in depth.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to his Oral Statement of 25 October 2006, Official Report, columns 1519-34, on the radioactive waste management report, how many jobs will be transferred from Nirex to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority; where they will be located; and what estimate he has made of the (a) one-off and (b) ongoing cost savings which will result from the transfer. (98545)

Nirex has key skills and expertise that we shall be safeguarding, as these are of utmost importance to the programme of work to secure geological disposal. It is anticipated that the staff of Nirex will transfer to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on terms at least as favourable as those they currently enjoy. The NDA will consult with staff to explore their options and preferences as part of the integration process.

For the foreseeable future, Nirex staff will remain at Harwell. Under the proposed transfer, this would, however, be a matter for the NDA, and would be the subject of discussions with individual staff. There are no plans for relocation.

Although currently owned by DEFRA and Department of Trade and Industry, the majority of Nirex's funding comes from the contract they retain with the NDA. It is anticipated that the proposed restructuring, utilising the powers given to the NDA under the Energy Act 2004, will provide the most efficient and robust means of implementing Government policy in future without the need to go through the costly and time-consuming establishment of new statutory bodies.